The invention relates to a combustion engine with a combustion chamber which has an ignition device to burn a fuel accompanied by formation of a combustion gas during an explosion stroke. The combustion engine has a rigid wall which is displaceable by an expanding combustion gas and whose movement can be transmitted to a drive shaft.
Conventional combustion engines of this type are for example Otto engines and diesel engines or Stirling engines. With diesel engines and Otto engines, the combustion chamber is formed by a cylinder in which a piston is housed displaceably, which piston forms the rigid displaceable wall which is connected to a drive shaft.
Furthermore it is known from DE-OS 32 14 516 that the combustion gas generated in a combustion chamber, which is formed from a cylinder within which a piston is housed, is guided, after a first expansion and conversion into mechanical work, into a second cylinder with a piston housed therein for further expansion accompanied by further conversion into mechanical work.